Unbeaten Glendale Cage Coach and Star Hailed as Best

To the victor belong the spoils.

And no one was more victorious this past prep basketball season then the Glendale High School team.

So it isn’t exactly a surprise that Glendale High Coach Steve Keith and his star guard Rich Grande received coach and player of the year honors at The Times’ annual boys basketball awards ceremony this week.

The program, in Harry Chandler Auditorium at Times Mirror Square on Tuesday evening, saluted 90 prep all-stars from Southern California areas.

Few, if any, were more successful than the Keith-Grande combination.

Perfect Record

In fact, you couldn’t improve on Keith’s coaching record. It was a perfect 28 and 0, including five wins in the playoffs en route to the CIF 4-A championship. If you add 25 consecutive wins in summer league play, that adds up to 53 straight victories.

Keith became coach at Glendale High eight years ago after coaching the junior varsity at Hoover.

Last year his junior-dominated team showed what could be ahead by posting an 18-7 mark, making it into the second round of the playoffs before losing to eventual state champion Long Beach Poly.

Grande, too, had a season he won’t soon forget.

Player of Year

The 6-2 senior point was both the player of the year in the Pacific League and the CIF’s 4-A division.

The USC-bound Grande averaged 21.6 points and 4.6 rebounds a game. His ball-handling skill prevented any team from pressuring Glendale.

In the five playoff contests, Grande scored 21, 26, 23, 26 and, finally, 26 in the championship game against Dominguez.

At the all-star awards ceremony, the players and their guests were welcomed by Glenn Davis, The Times’ director of special events, and his assistant, Will Kern. Times sportswriter Don Snyder narrated the awards presentation.

Speaker Was USC Coach

Stan Morrison, who coached USC to a share of the Pacific 10 conference title with Washington this season, was the principal speaker. Morrison presented certificates and gold hoop-and-ball plaques to players and awarded trophies to the players and coaches of the year for each suburban section.

Members of the 1985 All-Glendale team besides Grande are Walt Bakly of La Canada, Matt Dyrek of St. Francis, Drew Haberl and Harvey Mason of Crescenta Valley, Jason Mackenzie and Jerry Simon of Marshall, Rob Preston of Hoover and Bob Mulcahey and Jan Svoboda of Glendale.